Plea against Asthana’s appointment quashed

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as city police commissioner, saying that the union government should have “reasonable discretion” in deciding who is best for the job of the top cop in the national capital, especially when the officer concerned does not have “any blot” in his “service career”.

A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh also held that the Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling in the Prakash Singh case, which mandated that anyone being appointed police chief of a state needs to have six months of service left, is restricted to the selection of director generals of police of states, and is not applicable in Delhi. Asthana, due to retire on July 31, was appointed Delhi’s police commissioner on July 27.

“The executive, which is responsible for the law and order situation in the national capital, must have a reasonable discretion to select an officer it finds more suitable, based upon the career graph of such an officer, unless there is anything adverse in the service career of such an officer,” the court noted.

It also added in its 77-page judgment that it sees no need to interfere because the petitioner has not “even remotely demonstrated that there is any blot in the service career of Respondent No 2 (Asthana), making him unsuitable for the post in question.”

The bench said that it did not find any violation of statutory rules and was not persuaded to quash the appointment of Asthana, as sought by the petitioner and the intervener.

It also accepted the Union government’s contention that a public interest litigation cannot be entertained in a service matter.

The court said that the Union government had the powers to give extension to as well as effect an inter-cadre transfer of Asthana for appointing him to deal with the complexities and sensitivities in the city.